So whoever fights for this Word is truly in the path of Allah: if you are killed you are a martyr, and if you come away with spoils you are the successful one, just as Allah the Exalted says: “Say: Are you waiting for anything to befall us except one of the two splendid outcomes?”—either martyrdom or victory and triumph. He also says, “While we are waiting for you, that Allah will afflict you with a punishment from Himself or at our hands” (Q 9:52). That is, either Allah will punish you and spare us your harm—exactly as He did with al-Ahzab (the Confederates) who massed against Madinah to kill the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, whereupon He sent against them a wind and hosts and cast terror into their hearts—or He will punish you at our hands, as happened at Badr, when Allah chastised the idolaters through the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and his Companions. The one who fights so that the word of Allah may be supreme—he alone is the martyr.

If a person asks his Lord, saying, “O Allah, I ask You for martyrdom in Your path”—and martyrdom is only through fighting so that the word of Allah may be uppermost—then, if Allah knows that his words and intention are sincere, He will rank him among the martyrs even if he dies on his bed.

What remains is the case of someone who fights in defense of his country: is he in the path of Allah or not?

We say: If you fight to defend your country because it is an Islamic land and you wish to protect it on that account, then this is in the path of Allah, for you fought so that the word of Allah would be supreme. But if you fight merely because it is your homeland, this is not in the path of Allah; the criterion set down by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, applies only to the one who fights so that the word of Allah may be uppermost—he is in the path of Allah, and anything else is not. For this reason, we must correct a person’s intention when he goes out to defend his country, by